The present invention relates to a tracking arrangement and, in particular, to a tracking method and system useful in various environments.
In a exhibition, convention, trade show, product show or similar environment (usually referred to as an exhibitions), many visitors may visit any number of displays, exhibits, booths, shows, product areas, lectures, seminars, and the like (usually referred to as xe2x80x9cboothsxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cstationsxe2x80x9d). At each place visited the visitor may collect, order and/or request literature, catalogs, sales brochures, data sheets, samples, models, products, additional information, and the like. In addition, each sales person, manufacturer, operator, exhibitor or other proprietor of a booth or display (usually referred to as xe2x80x9cexhibitorsxe2x80x9d) desires to meet its customers, potential customers and other interested persons (usually referred to as xe2x80x9cvisitorsxe2x80x9d) face-to-face and discuss their respective interests, products and applications and the like.
The visitors desire to receive the information, samples and the like requested at each booth and the exhibitors desire to have a record of the visitors, their requests and interests. These desires were addressed by paper forms or informal notes, or by the exchange of business cards. Such paper records tended to be cumbersome to use and error prone, and often took a considerable time to process or were often misplaced or lost.
Issuing to each visitor pre-printed mailing labels or an embossed plastic card from which imprints could be made mechanically provided some degree of uniformity, but the paper records therefrom were also subject to delay and loss. The desire to maintain a complete, accurate and up to date record of the visitors and requests was addressed by automated or automatic methods of providing such record. However, conventional methods, even some of the more automated methods, all have shortcomings that result in less than the desired record being provided.
More sophisticated automatic methods employed bar-coded labels and/or magnetic stripe cards, each with suitable readers. While the cost of such labels and cards is low, so is the information that can be embedded or coded in either of these media. In addition, most readers are read-only devices and cannot store any additional information in the bar-code label or magnetic stripe card. Moreover, the lack of memory capacity in the media tended to make the readers more complex and more expensive, and the information that could be printed out is consequently limited.
Moreover, both bar-code and magnetic stripe media require a xe2x80x9cline-of-sightxe2x80x9d or direct communication path between media and reader, and the reliability of correct reading is about 80-90%, as anyone who has gone through a store check-out bar-code reader or used a magnetic stripe credit card reader will recognize. Repeated passes of the bar-code label in front of the bar-code reader and repeated swipes of the credit card through the card reader create delay and annoyance, and can produce record errors. Both are very inconvenient when inserted into a plastic badge holder that is clipped or pinned to the visitor, because the bar-code label or magnetic stripe card must either be repeatedly removed from and re-inserted into the badge holder and/or the bar-code reading error rate greatly increases due to the badge holder.
Electronic tracking using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags is one way to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art bar-code and magnetic stripe approaches. Prior art systems typically do not track visitors along the path of their visit and/or do not have reliable, essentially 100% correct reader performance, essentially without the need for human intervention, as is desirable for providing complete and accurate records.
Accordingly, there is a need for a tracking system that can track visitors to various exhibit stations, and that can facilitate quickly and accurately providing requested information to visitors. It would also be desirable that such system that does not require line-of-sight readers.
To this end, the method of the present invention for conducting an exhibition wherein a visitor having a smart tag visits a plurality of stations comprises:
associating a smart tag reader with each one of a plurality of stations for providing and/or receiving information-bearing signals in a smart tag format,
storing exhibitor information in an electronic memory associated with a station,
issuing a visitor smart tag containing visitor information, the visitor smart tag for providing and/or receiving information-bearing signals in the smart tag format,
communicating information-bearing signals between the visitor smart tag and the smart tag reader of a particular station when the visitor smart tag is proximate that particular station,
wherein visitor information from the visitor smart tag is stored in the particular station and/or exhibitor information from the particular station is stored in the visitor smart tag; and
processing visitor information and exhibitor information from at least one of the visitor smart tag and the plurality of stations for providing a record thereof.
According to another aspect of the invention, a system wherein a visitor having a smart tag visits a plurality of stations comprises:
a smart tag reader associated with each one of a plurality of stations for providing and /or receiving information-bearing signals in a smart tag format;
means for storing exhibitor information in an electronic memory associated with a station;
means for issuing a visitor smart tag containing visitor information, the visitor smart tag for providing and/or receiving information-bearing signals in the smart tag format;
means for communicating information-bearing signals between the visitor smart tag and the smart tag reader of a particular station when the visitor smart tag is proximate that particular station,
wherein visitor information from the visitor smart tag is stored in the particular station and/or exhibitor information from the particular station is stored in the visitor smart tag; and
means for processing visitor information and exhibitor information from at least one of the visitor smart tag and the plurality of stations for providing a record thereof.